1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to power converters. Specifically, the present invention relates to power converters for applications where power requirements are on the order of a few watts. More specifically, the present invention relates to those power converters having a universal input voltage range and needing to meet the requirements of “green” power, very low power consumption, under light load conditions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior art embodiments customarily use a light or no load detection system by sensing one of the parameters related to loading and then initiating burst mode operation to reduce standby power and to increase light load efficiency. One such embodiment is a method whereby a comparator is used to monitor a feedback voltage relative to a reference level which, if exceeded, causes a burst mode block to be activated in order to keep idle power consumption low. Customarily, the starting point of a prior art converter design is to set the duty cycle around 50% for low line full load conditions which unnecessarily increases the size and cost of the components and thus the converter for low power applications.